Don’t leave event delivery to inexperienced staff

When the news came through that Japan was going to witness one of the worst typhoons the country had ever seen, TAG's group director, Sam Robson and her team found themselves a little stressed.

Not because they dislike wet and wild weather, but because they had 41 delegates at in Tokyo at the time.

“We were due to fly back on the day that it hit Tokyo,” Robson explained. We were tracking it all week until it got to a point when we knew the timing of it and we knew it was going to be on that day.”

“As you can imagine, trying to get people back at the time, when there was a rugby world cup on and conference at the time, and obviously anyone who was on holiday who might want to get out before the typhoon hit – it was hugely stressful but the girls who were on the event worked all night to make sure as many people as we could got booked to leave on the Friday,” added Robson.

Valuing the teamwork of junior event staff is important, but more importantly, as Robson explained to me, is having a very experienced event planner on-site, at every event.

“I think quite often, the people who are delivering the events on-site aren’t the most experienced and that situation would have been a huge challenge for somebody who didn’t have 15 plus years’ experience,” said Robson.

“Being on-site is hard work and its long hours and its often time away from home. So often, as you rise up the ranks in an event agency, the less time you spend on site."

Robson explained that as event planners climb the career ladder, event delivery can be perceived to be a ‘lower-level’ job. While she acknowledges that in some ways it can be beneficial, especially if the delegates are the same ages as the junior members of the team, she implores other agencies to realise the importance of ensuring that the people who are delivering the event have got the experience to do so.

Nurturing talent

Learning how to deal with an event disrupted by a monster typhoon is first-class experience in crisis management and experience counts for a lot in the meeting and events world. But Robson believes a successful event planner has to have an intrinsic organisational ability.

“I think you need to have an innate ability, I think it can be improved but you need to have the ability and be a starter-finisher,” explained Robson.

“Some people are really good at having ideas and starting things, but can’t put them into practice, while others are great at taking ideas and finishing them.”

TAG help nurture that innate ability through its TAG Academy which takes on graduates or sixth form leavers.

“In that academy, they’re generally teaching travel skills, but the other side of things for us is that we take on student placements and give them industry experience, then once they graduate they often come back and work for us.”

2020 focus

TAG is also focussed on nurturing and growing its own ability as an agency. One way it's planning on doing this in 2020 is by using client feedback to ensure its event are the best they can be. The agency also has a strong focus on measuring employee engagement, because “happy employees mean happy clients,” Robson explained.

“We do an annual employee engagement survey, which tracks and monitors employee engagement in every territory and every division. So we can recognise when they’re not happy or whether we need to change something.

“We also run a lot of initiatives for employee welfare. For example, if anyone is working at an event that requires a lot of time away from home, we offer a care package for when they get back which contains things they enjoy, such as chocolate or wine.”

“We offer time in lieu as well as welfare days. We also encourage our staff to go on fam trips, so everybody gets three days of fam trip leave per year.”

Case study

Client: Lenovo UK&I

Event: VIP Channel Partner Forum

Audience: 32 of the client’s top Platinum Partner Program plus Lenovo staff

Location: Exclusive use of the Manor House at the Mount Juliet Estate in Kilkenny, Ireland

TAG’s challenge:

TAG’s challenge was to create the best channel incentive to ensure their forum stands out as the benchmark event of the industry. The programme was exactingly designed to create a ‘golden ticket’ event, as part of the client’s suite of marketing tools geared to rewarding and motivating key top distributors.TAG’s expertise

An exclusive VIP event to showcase the client’s new products and initiatives as well as rewarding their top resellers. TAG scoured Ireland for the perfect location, aided by the company’s procurement team, used to working with our Touring and Private Client divisions’ A list clients, and meticulously planned the event from start to finish including a business forum and product demonstration, led by the client’s senior management team.

A truly unforgettable experience was created with a luxury 30 self-drive supercar tour across Kilkenny, followed by a five-course tasting menu for the final night banquet curated by John Kelly, a Michelin star chef. The evening concluded with a dramatic Champagne tower and whisky tasting. TAG also organised a whole host of extras throughout the trip to create a truly memorable guest experience. The event was purposely designed to create an air of exclusivity and generate a type of corporate FOMO for next year.

Client feedback:

“A quick note to say a huge THANK YOU for your hard work on this event. Everything went extremely smoothly, and any small hiccups were dealt with calmly and professionally. The feedback from our customers has been outstanding… everyone was blown away with the cars. I know the hard work (and late nights/early mornings) that go on behind the scenes at these events, so I appreciate it all the more when things go so well.”  - Philip Oldham, marketing director, Lenovo UK & Ireland.